On the same coast, we meet with the city of PERGAMUS, the origin of which is similar to that of Antioch and Alexandria, though Pergamus, in language and manners, was more completely hellenised than Antioch ever could be, because of the predominance of the Syriac population, which was deeply interested in the preservation of its own language. The extent of the ruins still attests the ancient splendour of the place. When Alexander was conquering western Asia, and even during the time when his successor Lysimachus governed those parts, Pergamus was not a town, but only a castle on a precipitous rock, celebrated for its strength; the rock is called στροβιλοειδής, from its resemblance to a pine-cone. After the battle of Ipsus, when Lysimachus had obtained Phrygia on the Hellespont and Lydia, he deposited in that castle his treasures, amounting, it is said, to 9,000 talents, about £1,935,000. During the later years of this unhappy prince, when, owing to the intrigues of his second wife Arsinoë, who wished to secure the throne to her own children, the Furies entered his house, and when he commenced persecuting his children by his first wife, and even ordered Agathocles to be put to death, there arose such a commotion in his dominions, that many parts refused obedience to him, and the whole kingdom fell into a state of disorganisation. Seleucus Nicator attacked it, and Philetaerus, the governor of Pergamus, declared himself independent, and opened the gates to Seleucus. Philetaerus had for a long time been in possession of what had been intrusted to his care, and at first probably with honest intentions towards the house of Lysimachus. But when the whole family of the latter had become extinct, Philetaerus remained the ruler of the country. He was succeeded by his brother Eumenes as dynastes, a title which was then commonly given to those who would in former times have been called tyrants. With the assistance of Gallic mercenaries, he extended his dominions towards Syria, defeated Antiochus Soter, the son of Seleucus Nicator, and founded a regular principality. His son Attalus assumed the title of king, though he had but a small kingdom. But he extended it, and although it was at first reduced by the Romans, they afterwards favoured and raised him to the rank of king of Asia.